[4] Al Khemir graduated in 1982 from the University of Tunis, École Normale Supérieure, with a degree in English Literature.
Some of her first scholarly activities were evident in her Ph.D. dissertation, "The Palace of Sitt al-Mulk and Fatimid Imagery," London University, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK, 1990.
"…She wrote a close study of ten examples of Quranic manuscripts to show how different styles of calligraphy developed in the Islamic world…The year of the Al-Andalus show was significant: 1992 was the five-hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus's famous voyage in 1492, which was also the year when Islamic rule came to an end on the Iberian peninsula.
"[6] This experience inspired one of her later essays, "The Absent Mirror," first published in "Meetings with Remarkable Muslims," Eland Books, UK, 2005.
Al Khemir served as the founding director of the Museum of Islamic Art[2] in Doha, Qatar from 2006 to 2008, having joined as a consultant from 2003 to 2004 when she provided research and documentation for the developing collection.
Al Khemir's choices for the exhibition show "all the essential elements of Islamic art: the arabesque, geometry and calligraphy.
[10] "With her deep knowledge of Islamic objects around the world, Ms. Al Khemir was able to secure several works that have never before been shown in the United States, including four pages from the 'Blue Koran' of ninth- to 10th-century Tunisia; a 19th-century, six-and-a-half-foot-long gouache of the zodiac, originally from Iran, that has never been on public view; and several 11th-century crystal chess pieces that have never before left Spain.
Her best-known illustrative work is "The Island of Animals," Quartet, London and the University of Texas Press (April 1994).
As noted above, Al Khemir illustrated the children's book "Fables across Time: Kalila and Dimna," American Folk Art Museum (December 8, 2016), which she also wrote.